Bayern Munich loanee Alexander Nübel ponders future, expresses excitement for Schalke 04

Thomas Müller has just extended his contract at Bayern Munich until 2024 and Manuel Neuer is soon expected to follow suit. While this has been taken as a great bit of news for Bayern, this is a clear indicator for Alexander Nübel that he’ll want to find a new club after his loan spell at AS Monaco ends next summer. He does not see a future at Bayern so long as Neuer gets his current contract renewed, as is very much expected to take place in the near future.

“As of now, I’ll be back in 2023. If Manuel is still there, I think it won’t work anymore,” Nübel recently said of the situation (Abendzeitung). Nübel is well aware of the fact that, regardless of what happens with Sven Ulreich, he will not get anywhere near the amount of playing time he wants as long as Neuer is still at the club. Nübel already experienced this in his first season at Bayern after joining from Schalke 04. There was a clause in his contract that stipulated he would play at least 10 matches that season, but he came nowhere close to that number, not helped by the fact that Bayern was eliminated from the DFB-Pokal by Holstein Kiel early on.

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When the time does come, Nübel wants to figure out “how we can find the best solution” with Bayern, “but I think if Manu is still there, it doesn’t make sense for me to come back.” He’s not closed off to another loan spell somewhere if that’s what Bayern see to be most fit, though that is not his preference. He wants to find a more permanent solution somewhere. “Actually, I’m more in favor of taking a completely different path in general,” he said when weighing a loan spell vs. a permanent purchase from a buying club.

With the amount of experience he’s gained serving as Monaco’s number one goalkeeper, Nübel insists he is ready to play at a Champions League level and wants the consistency of minutes to continue wherever he eventually winds up. “I can’t do it anymore without the games. I don’t want to miss them anymore and ideally need them every three days,” he said, which is something that he can’t get at Bayern.

Even though he sees staying at Bayern as out of the question, he did say that he could very well imagine a return to the Bundesliga. “I’m open. I can also imagine coming back to the Bundesliga, even if the club isn’t called Bayern Munich,” he explained.

Nübel’s former club, Schalke 04, are well poised to earn direct promotion back into the Bundesliga. They sit on top of the 2. Bundesliga table, two points ahead of Darmstadt and Werder Bremen with only two match weeks remaining. Barring any sort of disastrous results against FC St. Pauli or FC Nürnberg, Schalke will be back in the German top flight. This is a prospect Nübel is very much looking forward to. “I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they make the ascent clear, hopefully by the weekend. I love the club. I hope and pray that they will go up now and I’m really excited about it,” he excitedly said earlier this week.